Very few parents reading this post can imagine sending their child out to play in what could be an active or defunct war zone. But it’s a sad fact that for many children, this nightmare is their reality. Massoud Hassani was such a child, and to combat the fears of his youth growing up in Kabul, he has developed a Mine Kafon (or detonator) that rolls across potential mine fields engaging explosives while civilians watch from a safe distance — with the hope of making war-torn spaces safer for children.

The concept is an expansion on the wind-powered toys Hassani built as a child in order to “race against the other kids on the fields around our neighborhood.” The games were fun, but also dangerous. “Our toys rolled too fast and too far. Mostly they landed in areas where we couldn’t go rescue them because of landmines.” Hassani has refined his design to be a “GPS integrated Mine Kafon Ball that will not explode when the mine goes off – the ball will continue to roll to the next mine to release the detonation.”